We woke up with all kinds of nature sounds and took it easy enjoying our little spot in the middle of nowhere. I made bacon and eggs on a campfire, we freshened up in the river and thought about what to do next.
On the map I had seen there where several other camping spots a few km south of where we where staying, as we could not swim in this part of the river we decided to pack up and drive a bit to see if we could find a spot with some swimming possibilities.
The road meandered nicely through the forest, and then we saw a nice steep road. We made a picture and drove up. After a few turns there was a heavily eroded path and to get on there would be a challenge as there was a big hole in the patch. I got out of the car and filled the hole with stones. Mo got out to film this challenge. It went pretty smooth, but I sure was glad with the off road courses I did and the Furstenau weekends of the Land Cruiser Club.
The trail got tougher and tougher, but so far the Land Cruiser was doing fine. The track got steeper and more warn out. At the bottom, there was a quick change from going down to going up and so from gentle and controlled, to a bit more power. And again the Land Cruiser did fine.
By this time I had played enough and hoped this would be it, but it seems the track and another surprise coming up. After another steep down there was another worn out transition to a steep climb and it would not be easy getting from one to the other. Seeing an old bumper next to the track was not very encouraging, but turning back at this point was not an inviting option either.
I filled up some holes with stone to have a ‘smoother’ track and gave it a try, Turning the car on the slope to line it up as good as possible and then carefully give it a try. It did not go right in the first try, so shift in reverse, moving around a bit and try again a few times and then the right front of the car jumped up and I was stuck.
I got out of the car to observe the position and check for damage and possible future damage. All in all it did not seem as bad as it looked. so I got back behind the steering wheel and maneuvered a bit back and forth and just like that I got out to the other side.
Pretty impressed by the car and what I remembered of the courses, we continued to the wading that was ahead just a few hundred meters.
It was an impressive looking wading, about 150-200 meter long. So first out of the car and into the water to check the depth. About 5 meters from the edge I was already way over knee deep, so a no go for this car. I checked the map and we decided to get to the main road and replan from there.
The first track maps.me suggested was very worn out and steep as well, so we turned back and tried another one. Still a challenging track, but more manageable. A few back and forths, a bit of meandering over the wide track and then, finally a ‘normal’ sand road. Once we got to the main road we checked for a close by camp site on this side of the river without to much tracks and found one we headed for.
Mean while the fuel gage also got back to normal. Later I read that it can get confused while driving off road, so it seemed I was loosing fuel and an alarming rate, but I checked for leaks several times and did not see or smell anything. Which was now confirmed.
We quickly put up the tent as the slight rain we had here and there on the track, turned into real rain, so we made sandwiches for dinner in the tent with a very fitting wine and turned in early.
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